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Evolving Styles for Learning Systems Thinking | Systems Thinking Ontario | 2025-02-13

The 128th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was convened in person.  The classroom was filled with current students, alumni, our regular participants, and a few curious newcomers.

Moderated by Zaid Khan, the conversation was sparked by Stephen Davies and myself (David Ing) on the evolving styles in learning systems thinking.  Stephen has been leading SFIN-6011 “Understanding Systems” since the beginning of this winter session.  I had previously taught in the course in winter 2020 (almost completing the term before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown), and have been volunteering some time this winter with current students.

The master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation was launched in 2009, with systems thinking at its core.

Our strategic innovation model … illustrates the integration of design, business, and futures thinking through systems thinking. This integration allows our students to move through an iterative design thinking process, understand the business context to ensure viability and develop deeper insights into the challenges a sector or organization might be facing through futures thinking. Systems thinking and mapping locates these complex challenges in a larger system and makes clear the patterns and interconnectedness of the issues; and visual thinking ensures more effective communication of complex data (Richards, 2015, p. 360).

In the earliest days, there were two courses listed:  (i) “Understanding Systems” in Year One, Winter semester, and (ii) “Social Systems” in Year Two, Fall semester (OCADU, 2011).

SFIN 6B02 Social Systems
In this introduction to complex systems, students will examine the dynamic arrangement of three interconnected and adaptive human systems; social, market and political.

Read more (in a new tab)

The 128th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was convened in person.  The classroom was filled with current students, alumni, our regular participants, and a few curious newcomers.

Moderated by Zaid Khan, the conversation was sparked by Stephen Davies and myself (David Ing) on the evolving styles in learning systems thinking.  Stephen has been leading SFIN-6011 “Understanding Systems” since the beginning of this winter session.  I had previously taught in the course in winter 2020 (almost completing the term before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown), and have been volunteering some time this winter with current students.

The master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation was launched in 2009, with systems thinking at its core.

Our strategic innovation model … illustrates the integration of design, business, and futures thinking through systems thinking. This integration allows our students to move through an iterative design thinking process, understand the business context to ensure viability and develop deeper insights into the challenges a sector or organization might be facing through futures thinking. Systems thinking and mapping locates these complex challenges in a larger system and makes clear the patterns and interconnectedness of the issues; and visual thinking ensures more effective communication of complex data (Richards, 2015, p. 360).

In the earliest days, there were two courses listed:  (i) “Understanding Systems” in Year One, Winter semester, and (ii) “Social Systems” in Year Two, Fall semester (OCADU, 2011).

SFIN 6B02 Social Systems
In this introduction to complex systems, students will examine the dynamic arrangement of three interconnected and adaptive human systems; social, market and political.

Read more (in a new tab)

Systems Approaches (Project Language + Literature Reviews with Generative AI) | OCADU | 2025-01-20

The “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course is a requirement in the master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU.   For winter 2025, the class is now led by Stephen Davies, breaking the incremental evolving of content since 2008.  While still on faculty at OCADU, the original course designer Peter H. Jones is now a Distinguished University Professor at Tecnologico de Monterrey, spending more time in Mexico City than Toronto.  In the fall, Stephen and I discussed ways that the legacy course might be updated, since the field of systemic design has emerged and matured over 15+ years.  I was one of the instructors with Peter of SFIN-6011 in winter 2020, and have prior experiences of writing systems thinking courses in 2018 for the UToronto iSchool, and at Aalto U. in 2016, in 2011, and in 2010.

From week 3 on, groups of students will lead short presentations on some systems approaches (e.g. system dynamics, soft systems methodology, viable system model).  With short lead times to prepare literature reviews, the primary class activity for these master’s students is the facilitation of peer discussions that will surface key ideas.  They aren’t expected to become experts on these topics at this point.  They can get a sense of when and where a specific systems approach might be prioritized as useful, or deselected in favour of alternatives.  After the presentation leaders have concluded with their slides, the instructors can fill in a few blanks.… Read more (in a new tab)

The “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course is a requirement in the master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU.   For winter 2025, the class is now led by Stephen Davies, breaking the incremental evolving of content since 2008.  While still on faculty at OCADU, the original course designer Peter H. Jones is now a Distinguished University Professor at Tecnologico de Monterrey, spending more time in Mexico City than Toronto.  In the fall, Stephen and I discussed ways that the legacy course might be updated, since the field of systemic design has emerged and matured over 15+ years.  I was one of the instructors with Peter of SFIN-6011 in winter 2020, and have prior experiences of writing systems thinking courses in 2018 for the UToronto iSchool, and at Aalto U. in 2016, in 2011, and in 2010.

From week 3 on, groups of students will lead short presentations on some systems approaches (e.g. system dynamics, soft systems methodology, viable system model).  With short lead times to prepare literature reviews, the primary class activity for these master’s students is the facilitation of peer discussions that will surface key ideas.  They aren’t expected to become experts on these topics at this point.  They can get a sense of when and where a specific systems approach might be prioritized as useful, or deselected in favour of alternatives.  After the presentation leaders have concluded with their slides, the instructors can fill in a few blanks.… Read more (in a new tab)

Generative AI and Inquiring Systems: Ways of Patterning and Ways of Knowing | Systems Thinking Ontario | 2025-01-08

In the 1970s, five ways of knowing were established by C. West Churchman in The Design of Inquiring Systtems. In the 1990s, his student Ian Mitroff carried on the tradition and extended that work in The Unbounded Mind.  Now in the 2020s, the technology of Generative AI opens up opportunties to query or request responses through chatbot interfaces, drawing from bodies of codified knowledge in a style expressed implicitly or explicitly.  Just as there are multiple ways of knowing, there are multiple ways in which underlying language models can be implemented and/or mixed.

The January 2025 Systems Thinking Ontario session, included:

  • the progression of patterning of information, in a simile of a recipe collection, from the days of cookbooks on library shelves, through the now familiar technologies of search engines and data science, to the new transformer and retrieval augmented generation techniques;
  • some Q+A chat challenges, feeding the same question and observing the differences in responses across (i) OpenAI ChatGPT, (ii) Microsoft Copilot, (iii) Mistral LeChat, (iv) Anthropic Claude, (v) Google NotebookLM, and (vi) Preplexity.ai;
  • five inquiring systems described in a mini-lecture, followed by summarized descrptions by each of the six generative AI products; and
  • a hypothetical scenario requesting the how the five inquiring systems might guide ways of deciding about Small Modular Reactors for Canada.

The discussion closed with an outline of Type 1 errors, Type 2 errors, Type 3 errors, and Type 4 errors, as structured by Ian Mitroff.… Read more (in a new tab)

In the 1970s, five ways of knowing were established by C. West Churchman in The Design of Inquiring Systtems. In the 1990s, his student Ian Mitroff carried on the tradition and extended that work in The Unbounded Mind.  Now in the 2020s, the technology of Generative AI opens up opportunties to query or request responses through chatbot interfaces, drawing from bodies of codified knowledge in a style expressed implicitly or explicitly.  Just as there are multiple ways of knowing, there are multiple ways in which underlying language models can be implemented and/or mixed.

The January 2025 Systems Thinking Ontario session, included:

  • the progression of patterning of information, in a simile of a recipe collection, from the days of cookbooks on library shelves, through the now familiar technologies of search engines and data science, to the new transformer and retrieval augmented generation techniques;
  • some Q+A chat challenges, feeding the same question and observing the differences in responses across (i) OpenAI ChatGPT, (ii) Microsoft Copilot, (iii) Mistral LeChat, (iv) Anthropic Claude, (v) Google NotebookLM, and (vi) Preplexity.ai;
  • five inquiring systems described in a mini-lecture, followed by summarized descrptions by each of the six generative AI products; and
  • a hypothetical scenario requesting the how the five inquiring systems might guide ways of deciding about Small Modular Reactors for Canada.

The discussion closed with an outline of Type 1 errors, Type 2 errors, Type 3 errors, and Type 4 errors, as structured by Ian Mitroff.… Read more (in a new tab)

STPIS 2024 Proceedings: Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes

For readers with an interest deeper than the 15-minute presentation given in August, the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in Information Systems (STPIS 2024) have now been formally publishied.

The invited paper on “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” was reviewed by the STPIS chairs.  Here’s the abstract:

Purpose: The rise of Socio-Technical Systems (STS) and Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) perspectives originated in the industrialization of the 1950s and 1960s. With ubiquitous computing and globalization compressing time and space, interests in systems thinking by the 2020s have turned towards systems changes. This refocusing on changes has encouraged hypothesizing an alternative world theory of (con)texturalism-dyadicism with a root metaphor of yinyang dancing through [eight] seasons. Through post-colonial sciencing in constructionist philosophizing across Western and Classical Chinese traditions, SES alongside STS are recast as kairotic rhythms casting on and binding off weaves in time.

Approach: This inquiry began with behavioral histories of open-sourcing-while-private-sourcing, in an inductive approach to theory building. Curiosity on the origins of causal texture theory led to plunging into the history of pragmatism, and its associated metaphilosophy. An exploration of processual philosophies revealed a better appreciation through a non-Western approach, via yinyang at the foundation of Classical Chinese Medicine. Developing a (con)textural-dyadic world theory enables conjoining SES and STS as diachronic complements.

Findings: Changes in SES and STS based on Western philosophy presuppose functions and structures as primordial, evoking systems conceptions of rearranging objects.

Read more (in a new tab)

For readers with an interest deeper than the 15-minute presentation given in August, the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in Information Systems (STPIS 2024) have now been formally publishied.

The invited paper on “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” was reviewed by the STPIS chairs.  Here’s the abstract:

Purpose: The rise of Socio-Technical Systems (STS) and Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) perspectives originated in the industrialization of the 1950s and 1960s. With ubiquitous computing and globalization compressing time and space, interests in systems thinking by the 2020s have turned towards systems changes. This refocusing on changes has encouraged hypothesizing an alternative world theory of (con)texturalism-dyadicism with a root metaphor of yinyang dancing through [eight] seasons. Through post-colonial sciencing in constructionist philosophizing across Western and Classical Chinese traditions, SES alongside STS are recast as kairotic rhythms casting on and binding off weaves in time.

Approach: This inquiry began with behavioral histories of open-sourcing-while-private-sourcing, in an inductive approach to theory building. Curiosity on the origins of causal texture theory led to plunging into the history of pragmatism, and its associated metaphilosophy. An exploration of processual philosophies revealed a better appreciation through a non-Western approach, via yinyang at the foundation of Classical Chinese Medicine. Developing a (con)textural-dyadic world theory enables conjoining SES and STS as diachronic complements.

Findings: Changes in SES and STS based on Western philosophy presuppose functions and structures as primordial, evoking systems conceptions of rearranging objects.

Read more (in a new tab)

Systems Thinking Ontario as Systems Convening | ST-ON | 2024-10-21

The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program.  As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013.

Zaid Khan moderated  a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura.

We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with Dialogue, adopting their tradition of meeting in a circle in the Lambert Lounge at OCADU.  In the summers, we’ve celebrated the Synthesis Maps created by Master of Design students from the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program in the Visual Analytics Lab.  The COVID-19 pandemic saw us shift to online meetings, with a few in-person opportunties taken in the summer.

This video recording is available for download, on Youtube, and also on the Internet Archive .

Video H.264 MP4
October 21
(1h35m)
[20241021_ST-ON_RSDx-RSD13_FHD_620kpbs.m4v
(1920×1080 626kbps 538MB)
[on the Internet Archive]

An audio version was also created during the meeting.

Audio
October 21
(1h35m)
[20241021_ST-ON_RSDx-RSD13.m4a]
(126kbps, 88 MB)
[on the Internet Archive]

In 2025, Systems Thinking Ontario meetings are planned to continue.  We’re shifting to a different evening, to enable inclusion of students currently in the SFI program.  With an increase in the number of sessions where we’ll meet in person, we hope that novices will join our regulars.  Stay posted at https://wiki.st-on.org.

Systems Convening, in the RSD13-RSDX program

The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program.  As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013.

Zaid Khan moderated  a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura.

We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with Dialogue, adopting their tradition of meeting in a circle in the Lambert Lounge at OCADU.  In the summers, we’ve celebrated the Synthesis Maps created by Master of Design students from the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program in the Visual Analytics Lab.  The COVID-19 pandemic saw us shift to online meetings, with a few in-person opportunties taken in the summer.

This video recording is available for download, on Youtube, and also on the Internet Archive .

Video H.264 MP4
October 21
(1h35m)
[20241021_ST-ON_RSDx-RSD13_FHD_620kpbs.m4v
(1920×1080 626kbps 538MB)
[on the Internet Archive]

An audio version was also created during the meeting.

Audio
October 21
(1h35m)
[20241021_ST-ON_RSDx-RSD13.m4a]
(126kbps, 88 MB)
[on the Internet Archive]

In 2025, Systems Thinking Ontario meetings are planned to continue.  We’re shifting to a different evening, to enable inclusion of students currently in the SFI program.  With an increase in the number of sessions where we’ll meet in person, we hope that novices will join our regulars.  Stay posted at https://wiki.st-on.org.

Systems Convening, in the RSD13-RSDX program

Systems Theory, Systems Philosophy, Systems Methodology via Bela H. Banathy (1985)

The International Society for General Systems Research formed circa 1956 became the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 1988.  In 1985, Bela H. Banathy organized the annual meeting on the theme of “Systems Inquiring”.  Proceedings normally are published in the year following.  In 1987, John A. Dillon summarized Banathy’s perspective in the yearbook, General Systems.  For easy reading, here’s an excerpt from the yearbook.

— begin excerpt —

EDITORIAL PREFACE

Systems Inquiring

One of the few perquisites which come to the President of the International Society for General Systems Research is that he or she can determine the theme of the Annual Conference. In 1985, President Bela Banathy selected the topic, Systems Inquiring as the focal point of the Conference.

Because his Introduction to that conference represents an excellent, concise description of the whole field of systems science, we shall begin this volume by quoting it here.

“Systems Inquiring involves both conclusion oriented disciplined inquiry or knowledge production and decision oriented disciplined inquiry, which makes use of knowledge produced by systems research and by the various disciplines. Systems Inquiring draws upon the three domains of systems scholarship: systems theory, systems philosophy, and systems methodology.

The program of the 1985 Annual Meeting of the Society embraces the entire scope of Systems Inquiry, by which:
SYSTEMS PHILOSOPHY is explicated and evolved,
SYSTEMS THEORY is defined and formulated through its continuous evolution, and
SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY is pursued as a field of study as well as implemented in a variety of contexts and through a variety of strategies and methods.… Read more (in a new tab)

The International Society for General Systems Research formed circa 1956 became the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 1988.  In 1985, Bela H. Banathy organized the annual meeting on the theme of “Systems Inquiring”.  Proceedings normally are published in the year following.  In 1987, John A. Dillon summarized Banathy’s perspective in the yearbook, General Systems.  For easy reading, here’s an excerpt from the yearbook.

— begin excerpt —

EDITORIAL PREFACE

Systems Inquiring

One of the few perquisites which come to the President of the International Society for General Systems Research is that he or she can determine the theme of the Annual Conference. In 1985, President Bela Banathy selected the topic, Systems Inquiring as the focal point of the Conference.

Because his Introduction to that conference represents an excellent, concise description of the whole field of systems science, we shall begin this volume by quoting it here.

“Systems Inquiring involves both conclusion oriented disciplined inquiry or knowledge production and decision oriented disciplined inquiry, which makes use of knowledge produced by systems research and by the various disciplines. Systems Inquiring draws upon the three domains of systems scholarship: systems theory, systems philosophy, and systems methodology.

The program of the 1985 Annual Meeting of the Society embraces the entire scope of Systems Inquiry, by which:
SYSTEMS PHILOSOPHY is explicated and evolved,
SYSTEMS THEORY is defined and formulated through its continuous evolution, and
SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY is pursued as a field of study as well as implemented in a variety of contexts and through a variety of strategies and methods.… Read more (in a new tab)

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      Audio recordings + 2 GenAI summaries of Evolving Styles for Learning Systems Thinking at #SystemsThinking Ontario @ocad with #StephenDavies @daviding@daviding.com , moderated by #ZaidKhan https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/evolving-styles-for-learning-systems-thinking/
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      In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
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      Active month starting off the new year with family time, a full exploration of New Orleans, and back to Toronto to begin teaching, arriving at the date for cataract surgery.
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